By Jennifer Parsons, Chief Market & Partnerships Officer at UniQuest.
Amid a challenging student recruitment landscape that has seen the UK’s enduring appeal as a study destination threatened, there are still some positives we can draw. One of them is undoubtedly a sharpened focus from institutions both on lead pipelines, the process where institutions guide applicants towards enrolment, and those critical moments that can really impact conversion rates (the proportion of applicants who ultimately enrol there). The economic and political backdrop appears to have encouraged many UK universities to improve engagement with prospective students, boosting that all-important first impression.
Understandably, students applying to study in the UK have been nervous about the changing policy environment. They’ve delayed making financial commitments and, on the whole, require more support throughout the application process. We’ve seen the impact this has had on volumes, with the latest Home Office data showing 16% fewer visa applications for July to September 2024 than the same period the year before.
We’re also seeing – through the results of the 2024 Enquiry Experience Tracker (EET) – that universities have been stepping up to support students through proactive, ongoing engagement that makes them feel valued after initially enquiring with an institution. The EET is a mystery shopping research programme developed by Edified in partnership with UniQuest. It helps higher education institutions understand how well they respond to enquiries from prospective students and benchmark against other institutions globally.
This year, over 100 institutions participated in the study globally, including one-quarter of all UK universities. The results revealed that UK universities are now among the best in the world at engaging with prospective students, providing faster, better-quality and more personalised responses, with scores 15% higher than in 2023.
This upward trend was also seen in Australia, which improved its own collective score by 18% – suggesting that, there too, tightening student visa rules have prompted a greater focus on delivering a good enquiry experience.
All of this matters because our data shows that students who have a positive enquiry experience are much more likely to enrol. Having a two-way reciprocal conversation with a future student more than doubles conversion from offer to enrolment, as does offering a multi-channel approach. So, what exactly should institutions be doing to help mitigate against external factors as best they can?
On the whole, the demand for human connection is evident throughout the results. When students received warm, friendly and genuine responses, they were willing to overlook other small inconveniences. When students didn’t feel this warmth, one in four rated their experience as negative. And, while chatbots were quicker at responding to enquiries, students found speaking to staff four times more positive.
Responses should also go beyond just answering the specific questions asked – sharing assets like campus videos or event links is an opportunity to draw students further into the recruitment funnel.
WeChat is a big area for improvement. Only half of UK institutions use WeChat to speak to Chinese prospects, compared to nine in 10 institutions in Australia and New Zealand. Our data shows that we’re currently seeing a 39% year-on-year increase in offer holder volume for Chinese students for January 2025. With tough student caps being introduced in Australia in 2025, it’s an opportunity for UK institutions to capitalise – but not if they’re missing valuable opportunities to engage.
It’s also important to acknowledge the sheer volume of enquiries universities are facing. Almost half of institutions that participated in the EET receive between 10,000 and 25,000 international student enquiries each year (some receive lots more!), and most have a team of at least six staff members responding. It’s a resource-intensive operation that has to deal with huge influxes in enquiries when policy changes are announced.
For example, in May 2023, our data shows that institutions saw a sharp spike in visa-related questions immediately following the announcement of the dependants ban. Normally, we see this spike in July/August, so it meant handling that volume much earlier in the cycle than teams would have anticipated.
When it comes to current concerns, our FAQ data reveals that admissions-related questions are the most frequently asked across all markets, with finance, course questions and visa issues following behind. In terms of blockers to study, personal reasons are the current top blocker, followed by finance. This reflects global financial challenges but does not mean that the appetite to study overseas is waning.
In fact, there are early indications of growth for January 2025, with our data highlighting a 13% increase in firm acceptances year-on-year – no doubt partially fuelled by Canada and Australia announcing further limits on international study permits. In addition to China, we can see significant year-on-year offer holder increases for students from Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana, Bangladesh, and Kenya.
These are seeds of hope, but now is not the time for institutions to take their foot off the gas when it comes to engagement strategies with prospective students – especially when we’re also in the early days of a new Government, which has committed to reducing net immigration. Whatever policy changes are ahead, we hope to see continued improvement in next year’s enquiry tracker.